Tango

It's a culture shock for many of them too. They've come out of years of school, where they're told exactly what they've got to do in each lesson into a regime where they're given assignments where they've got to go and work under their own initiative. And many also have to learn how to look after themselves and manage finances for the first time in their lives on top of the actual Uni work.

Sometimes they don't get on with the course. It just doesn't suit them. I guess that it's better that he does something about it now than struggling and bailing out farther into it.

Yeah, I can see now what you mean.

The big problem with uni is that the first year is fairly easy and it's all a big adventure, then it ratchets up a bit in the second year and the third year can be pretty harsh, depending on the course. My youngest had a real hard time in year 3 and was close to throwing the towel in several times! He stuck it out because he said that he didn't want that debt with nothing to show for it, but it really ground him down.

One of my nieces is renting a place in Bristol with her boyfriend. They had a hell of a job finding somewhere that would take them on, as her boyfriend works full time, but is technically self-employed! Costing them a small fortune for a pretty basic flat!

Why didn't they just replace the original bar clamp top bracket with an extended one? That looks over complicated to me? I assume the cables and brake lines were plenty long enough?

I went to the BMF show in Peterborough many years back on my old Triumph Trophy 900. It had been pissing down with rain for several days and for some weird reason they decided that the bike parking was on a grassy waterlogged field. I got directed to my space and put the sidestand down and leaned the bike over, but the stand just sunk into the ground! I was near the end of a long row of bikes and I could see the domino effect! Somehow I managed to haul the bike back upright, bearing in mind that my footing was on wet grass and the Trophy weighed in at 245Kg, and got the bike onto the main stand, but even that sunk into the ground a bit. Fortunately the bike was still upright at the end of the day when we left! I don't know which twat thought it would be a good idea to have the bike parking on that field!

Chatting with my boys at the weekend and it looks like both of them have managed to get themselves new jobs. Hopefully they'll be able to afford to get themselves a place of their own, as it sounds like living at their mum's place is turning into a bit of an ordeal! Here's hoping.

I'm quite proud of myself. Woke up at 5am, busting for a pee, but managed to stay in bed until nearly 7am before I had to leg it to the bog! That was very nearly an entire night when I didn’t have to get up during the night for a pee! Gotta be some kind of record!

They've brought in a thing in many cities over here where you have to get a sticker for your car/bike etc. Vehicles get graded by their emission figures and then fall into a band between 1 (least polluting) and 5 (most polluting). Access to some cities can be limited to Vehicles in the lower polluting categories at certain times. The stickers are only 3€50 or thereabouts, so registering is not expensive. Fortunately, all our vehicles fall into band 1 or 2, so there shouldn't be any problems for us. Where Mandy works is within the zone for Montpellier, but her car is band 1 anyway.

We've used AO (appliances online) in the past and delivery was free from what I can remember. We used Darty here and delivery and installation were in the price, but they weren't any more expensive than any of the others.

It's always the way. The week before Christmas you can guarantee things to break down. Our water heater died a week before Christmas last year, but managed to get a new one fitted on Christmas eve! Hopefully you can get it sorted OK @Clive.

I go on a few Facebook groups for WWII then/now pictures. I think one of them is DDay then/Now or something like that. Another one I like is Tom Marshall, who colourises old WWI era photos. It completely transforms the images. I guess it's a bit morbid looking at these pictures, but it does bring home to me the bravery of the soldiers and the futility of war!

Our mince pies are a bit light on the alcohol, but our Christmas cake is likely to need a flammable item sticker on it!

Most supermarkets here have some British stuff in their foreign food aisles, but it's normally limited to extremely expensive jars of marmite and McVities biscuits!

No, mate, but we make our own mince pies and Christmas cake. There's a few online places that do deliveries of brit food stuffs, mainly from the Republic of Ireland so they have less red tape to deal with.

Have a great time, mate..........and don't buy anything stupid in the pawnshop!

Got another calendar today! There's a weird tradition here that the firemen, bin men, postie, etc come round on the run up to Christmas for their tips, but they're not allowed to just accept money. So you "buy" a calendar from them for whatever you think appropriate. I don't know what the rules are, but the French are very creative in finding ways around them! Anyway, anyone want to buy a calendar?

They're also badged as Fiat over here too!

Yeah, it Jake LaMotta, I just looked it up.

Wasn't the film Raging Bull about him?